Britons jet off for Christmas

The Christmas exodus was getting under way today as millions of Britons were leaving work for the holidays.

More than one million people are set to defy fears of terrorism by jetting off to sunnier climes abroad.

Britain's road and rail services were expecting millions more.

The British Airports Authority said it was expecting 1.1m people to fly out of Britain this weekend.

The Canary Islands, Spain and France are the favourite short-haul destinations, a BAA spokesman said, with Miami, New York and Los Angeles the most popular long-haul routes.

BAA chief executive Mike Hodgkinson said: "With over a million people expected to travel out of our airports over the festive weekend this year, clearly people are giving air travel a vote of confidence."

Roads were expected to be busy tonight with the M25 hardest hit, the AA said.

With severe weather forecast for the weekend, the AA warned motorists to be careful on icy roads.

Rail operators were expecting two million passengers this weekend, with Christmas Eve the busiest day.

Passengers hoping to travel to Paris or Brussels on Eurostar were facing cancellations today because of industrial action.

Twelve of today's services were cancelled and three more were expected not to run tomorrow.